dont think winning anything will make a difference people just arent interested in rugby league in this football mad town/country

if we do win prices will go up still further and people will say they cant afford. we would be champions so the club would say higher season ticket price and turnstile price is justified to keep the trophies coming.

one thing i think we could improve on is marketing ourselves .. we just dont use crabtree enough, people who dont know much about rugby even know who he is!!! we missed a trick at the start of the season to get people interested in season tickets.

also use cudjoe/mcgillvary/brough and fielden more in marketing.

Every club is in the same boat pretty much at the moment as the recession is always going to hit the leisure sector the hardest. It's the same at the Bulls, since we had to start charging full whack we've lost about 2k of the attendances. We've got 6,400 season ticket holders against around 10k last year when they were half price.

I think as RL fans we've not to get too gloomy about it (difficult for RL fans!). At Hudders you've got a good side. I wouldn't read too much into the odd loss against the lesser sides this year, every team loses games it doesn't expect and wins ones it doesn't expect either. If you're not careful the glass half empty attitude can really bring the atmosphere down and put people off. Get some perspective.

It was always going to take time to build the club up. Before now your last period of real success was 60 years ago. It'll take time to build up to decent crowds, especially with the recession and the kind of competition for leisuretime that wasn't around back in the 50s.

Hopefully the decent weather is around the corner (we're due some!) and the economy can't carry on like this forever.

A fall in crowds this year is not necessarily as bad as it seems. I suspect there will be a few people like me who have not renewed their season ticket but are likely to go to a few games over the course of the season. I'm likely to go to a couple of games so the club will get nearly the same money from me as they did last season. So whilst crowds may be down revenue may be the same or even up.
Another factor is the world cup. Some people may choose to forego a club game in order to attend a world cup game. I've managed to get 5 people to buy tickets for a world cup game but none of them are likely to attend a club game. If the world cup can be seen to be a success this may help the profile of rugby league which may in turn increase club attendances in future seasons.

very good point... the world cup is massive for this country and rugby league for the future... needs to be supported and a success

If macbanana was a little less likely to select on reputation and where a player plays his club rugby and more likely to select on form and having players with skills that compliment each other it is more likely to be a success.

Good post.

I think there are a number of factors that all have an effect on our crowds, a lot of which have been touched on in this thread. The advantage Town have is that a lot of their support comes from the Heavy Woollen area of Kirklees whereas in rugby terms this is Batley / Dewsbury and to a lesser extent Wakey territory. Added to that is the history that Ken has with Town. There are still lads in my office who would never consider going to watch the Giants whilst Ken is in charge. It's almost like the miners strike mentality - very entrenched single minded black and white views. I remember some saying they would never watch Fartown at the McAlpine - does anyone know anybody who carried this through and stopped watching Fartown when they moved ground?

The future is kids / families who have no previous baggage - if you can entertain lots of them the future will be brighter. Also everyone likes a winner and I know one or two Hudds kids who prefer Ronnie the Rhino to Big G unfortunately. Early impressions and all that.

As I say lots of factors - but when you look back 10 years we've come a long way and should look to the future with optimism.

Some good posts

It's tough to see us so close, yet still so far from where we want to be

The economy has to bear the brunt of the problem though, money is just too tight - especially for away fans, its been noticeable that visiting fans are fewer, as our own home fans and that's down to economic pressures

That and the godawful weather!

A few wins, better weather and we will soon be seeing numbers up

I just hope it's soon enough and big enough

Yeah, I was going the mention the away crowds. Some must be down by a least half. The economy and the weather don't help - I've been freezing my b0ll0cks off in the Kilner this year. Five layers of clothes and still cold. But you can't rely on away support - it's down to the home club to attract the fans.

Oddly our away support seems to have improved I feel.

on the subject of away support at the stadium,it hasn't helped with only 2 games on a sunday afternoon,london won't have had any real numbers whilst bradford only had 1230. wigan and hull brought 1985 and 716 respectively on a saturday and widnes 448 on a monday. im sure wigan,hull and widnes' support would have been much higher had they been sunday afternoon.

True. Now that is a mystery. I'd like someone to try and explain that.

Ken may have been disappointed with the Hull crowd but there was a lot against us.

Crap kick off time, on Sky, Wales v England grand slam decided on BBC. I also met a lad in the pub after the game who went to the Town v Leeds game the same afternoon. He said he'd watch the Giants as well as Town if he could afford but Town was his first choice. We did have a pint together to celebrate both teams winning on the same weekend (same afternoon this particular time) as it doesn't happen very often. Mostly down to Town these days.

Yeah that's true, we did get royally stiffed over the Hull game - I know 4 regulars who couldn't make it

I know a family who took up the free coach offer who had never been to away games and then have got hooked on them and have gone to everyone since.

Last season I bought 11 season tickets for our family. But this season we only got 6 due to some of them not able to afford it, and they will not be going to any pay on day matches as they can`t afford it due to reduced income.
There must be many more in the same situation, and £24 or £48 for a couple will go a long way to putting some food on the table. Things must be prioritised and going to a game is low down on that list.
Also all clubs support is down, it was only the Good Friday crowds that produced some good figures, as generally they are all down.
Just been looking at Leeds and Wigan crowds for the respective matches for 2012 and they are both down.
And travelling support to our place has been well down, in fact the Hull contingent was the lowest I have ever seen at our place. But that could be as the game was on SKY and RU on TV.
We have always had poor gates when on SKY, and our best supported day is Sunday afternoon.
Also the trouble with our supporters is they are so fickle, we have a team that flatters to deceive :- we will win 3 games and then have a stinker and repeat again shooting the club in the foot as our consistency is one of the problems.
I would argue the fact of Huddersfield being a totally football town, as I come from Dewsbury and there are plenty of town fans here also Ossett and Batley, and that`s just this side of Huddersfield, if the same is repeated on the other side of Huddersfield just how many actually come from Huddersfield, getting down to the nitty gritty I bet the crowds actually from Huddersfield are about the same for Rugby and football. Don`t forget Fartown used to get huge crowds in the past so it is not a Football town only.